Tuesday 9 September 2008

Putting The Mac Into Freddie Mac

There are many excellent consequences of the nationalisation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. One is that, now that no one not on the outer fringes of academic economics even pretends to deny that the State is always the lender of last resort, and must be able to underwrite these things, Scottish independence is a dead cause.

There is a vast financial services sector based in Scotland, and it is very dear to the popular heart there. As well it might be. An independent Scotland could not underwrite one, never mind all, of the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, Standard Life, Scottish Widows, and all the rest of them.

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